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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCampus Kids Panel 2I hereby give and grant to the HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMITTEE, City of College Station, Texas, for whatever purposes may be determined, the tape recordings, transcriptions, and contents of this oral history interview. Also, permission is hereby given for any duplications of original photos, documents, maps, etc. useful to the history project to be returned unharmed. Interviewee releases, relinquishes and discharges CITY, its officers, agents and employees, from all claims, demands, and causes of action of every kind and character, including the cost of defense thereof, for any injury to, including the cost of defense thereof for any injury to, including death of, any person, whether that person be a third person, Interviewee, or an employee of either of the parties hereto, and any loss of or damage to property, whether the same be that either of the parties hereto or of third parties, caused by or alleged to be caused by, arising out of, or in connection with Interviewee provision of historical information, whether or not said claims, demands and causes of action in whole or in part are covered by insurance. Billie M. Trail Interviewee (Please Print) / °1 List of photos, documents, maps, etc. HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMITTEE City of College Station, Texas 77840 ORAL HISTORY DATA SHEET Signature' terviewer g it^ ,) D 1 .,/),- ,-,664.1.9 /o„ 1 Place of Interview Interviewee (Please print) AL/4V -171 Signature of Interviewee Name Billie M. Trail Telephone 794 S -� ,1•b; „. Date of Birth Si/3/fr/ Place of Birth 5 P 1 J /P, INTERVIEW STATUS: Completed In progress Interviewee agrees to and shall indemnify and hold harmless CITY, its officers, agents and employees, from and against any and all claims, losses, damages, causes of action, suits and liability of every kind, attorney's fees, for injury to or death of any person, or for damage to any property, arising out of or in connection with the use of the items and information referenced aboved by CITY, its agents, representatives, assigns, invitees, and participants under this grant. Such indemnity shall apply where the claims, losses damages, causes of action, suits or liability arise in whole or in part from the negligence of city. Date' 6 Initial /i I hereby give and grant to the HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMITTEE, City of College Station, Texas, for whatever purposes may be determined, the tape recordings, transcriptions, and contents of this oral history interview. Also, permission is hereby given for any duplications of original photos, documents, maps, etc. useful to the history project to be returned unharmed. Interviewee releases, relinquishes and discharges CITY, its officers, agents and employees, from all claims, demands, and causes of action of every kind and character, including the cost of defense thereof, for any injury to, including the cost of defense thereof for any injury to, including death of, any person, whether that person be a third person, Interviewee, or an employee of either of the parties hereto, and any loss of or damage to property, whether the same be that either of the parties hereto or of third parties, caused by or alleged to be caused by, arising out of, or in connection with Interviewee provision of historical information, whether or not said claims, demands and causes of action in whole or in part are covered by insurance. r , ft 4 . kcx 0.vTeX Interviewee (Please print) Signature of khterviewee Interviewer (Please 7 /l /.r 91 Signature of Interviewer HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMITTEE City of College Station, Texas 77840 ORAL HISTORY DATA SHEET Place of Interview List of photos, documents, mans. etc. Name Address N1i SSow�— ����,� Telephone Date of Birth JwA.e— a� ' Place of Birth ft d-NI .,,,1p t '.0161e— INTERVIEW STATUS: Completed In progress Interviewee agrees to and shall indemnify and hold harmless CITY, its officers, agents and employees, from and against any and all claims, losses, damages, causes of action, suits and liability of every kind, attorney's fees, for injury to or death of any person, or for damage to any property, arising out of or in connection with the use of the items and information referenced aboved by CITY, its agents, representatives, assigns, invitees, and participants under this grant. Such indemnity shall apply where the claims, losses damages, causes of action, suits or liability arise in whole or in part from the negligence of city. Date Initial Laetitia Haines Signature of Interviewer Place of Interview List of photos, documents, maps, etc. HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMITTEE City of College Station, Texas 77840 ORAL HISTORY DATA SHEET I hereby give and grant to the HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMITTEE, City of College Station, Texas, for whatever purposes may be determined, the tape recordings, transcriptions, and contents of this oral history interview. Also, permission is hereby given for any duplications of original photos, documents, maps, etc. useful to the history project to be returned unharmed. Interviewee releases, relinquishes and discharges CITY, its officers, agents and employees, from all claims, demands, and causes of action of every kind and character, including the cost of defense thereof, for any injury to, including the cost of defense thereof for any injury to, including death of, any person, whether that person be a third person, Interviewee, or an employee of either of the parties hereto, and any loss of or damage to property, whether the same be that either of the parties hereto or of third parties, caused by or alleged to be caused by, arising out of, or in connection with Interviewee provision of historical information, whether or not said claims, demands and causes of action in whole or in part are covered by insurance. Bel Hate fi,� J o n i we� (Please p� in signature df Interviewee 13crtfiui J V\ Name ,1C( Fc∎rwcx ri v€ Address Las Cruces, NM A -©(I Telephone 5 a5"-- 2 2— Date of Birth ° 1 — / s " J7 Place of Birth B r c1ce h. re,'SGiS 71 Interviewer (Please .rint) INTERVIEW STATUS: Completed In progress Interviewee agrees to and shall indemnify and hold harmless CITY, its officers, agents and employees, from and against any and all claims, losses, damages, causes of action, suits and liability of every kind, attorney's fees, for injury to or death of any person, or for damage to any property, arising out of or in connection with the use of the items and information referenced aboved by CITY, its agents, representatives, assigns, invitees, and participants under this grant. Such indemnity shall apply where the claims, losses damages, causes of action, suits or liability arise in whole or in part from the negligence of city. 2 — 18 - Date ( Initial Betty Jo Hale Hohn City of College Station Memory Lanes Oral History Project This is 1,0, ww, f Go,A, Today is / ) , , YG' (month) (day) (year) I'm interviewing for the /' time lnyf_ /3i& To 44 (Mr., Mrs., Miss, Ms., Dr., Etc.) This interview is taking place in Room / o „2 of The i-')'04g„,40 (( at 1300 George Bush Dr. College Station , Texas . This interview is sponsored by the Historic Preservation Committee and the Conference Center Advisory Committee of the City of College Station, Texas. It is part of the Memory Lane Oral History Project. Have each person introduce themselves so their voice is identifiable on the tape recorder. The purpose of The Historic Preservation Committee is to gather and preserve historical documents by means of the tape - recorded interview. Tape recordings and transcripts resulting from such interviews become part of the archives of The City of College Station Historic Preservation Committee and Conference Center Advisory Committee to be used for whatever purposes may be determined. with : The City of College Station, Texas Memory Lanes Oral History Project INTERVIEW AGREEMENT I have read the above and voluntarily offer my portion of the interviews n �/ (Name of Interviewee) 1 . 11 #di //Oki 7. 2. A 3. 44-e (-ore/ 9. 4. 10. 5. 6. 11. 12. In view of the scholarly value of this research material, I hereby assign rights, title, and interest pertaining to it to The City of College Station Historic Preservation Committee and Confereenter� ry Committee. Interviewer (signature) Date d / (p / (7 pi,-)%' � Interviewer (Please Print) Remarks: ry,Lane: rilc 4del Name M,{i Interview No. Interview date Interviewer Interview length Interview Place Special sources of information Date tape received in office # of tapes marked Date Original Photographs Yes No # of photos Date Rec'd Describe Photos City of College Station Memory Lanes Oral History Project Interview Agreement and tape disposal form: Given to interviewee on Received Yes No Date Signed Restrictions- If yes, see remarks below. Yes No Transcription: First typing completed by Pages Date (name) First audit check by Sent to interviewee on / Received from interviewee on Copy editing and second audit check by Final copies: Typed by Oral History Stage Sheet (name) (name) Pages Date Pages Date Pages Date Proofread by: 1) Pages Date 2) Pages Date Photos out for reproduction: Where to: Date: Original photos returned to: Date: Indexed by: Date Sent to bindery by Date Received from bindery Date Deposited in archives by: Date Remarks: City of College Station Memory Lanes Oral History Project Memory Lane: lu its + _ Interview No. Name 1- -(J��. ti ha_ lim 1 " \t$ Interview date Interviewer Interview length Interview Place Special sources of information Date tape received in office # of tapes marked Date Original Photographs Yes No # of photos Date Rec'd Describe Photos Interview Agreement and tape disposal form: Given to interviewee on Received Yes No Date Signed Restrictions- If yes, see remarks below. Yes No Transcription: First typing completed by Pages Date (name) (name) First audit check by Sent to interviewee on ICI Received from interviewee on Copy editing and second audit check by Final copies: Typed by Oral History Stage Sheet `lam (name) Pages Date Pages Date Pages Date Proofread by: 1) Pages Date 2) Pages Date Photos out for reproduction: Where to: Date: Original photos returned to: Date: Indexed by: Date Sent to bindery by Date Received from bindery Date Deposited in archives by: Date Remarks: City of College Station Memory Lanes Oral History Project First audit check by Copy editing and second audit check by Final copies: Typed by Oral History Stage Sheet Memory Lane : _e(ti(Y .. V t,IS 6 ('� Interview No. Name, N 1 --- 0 i4OI/I V1 Interview date Interviewer Interview length Interview Place Special sources of information Date tape received in office # of tapes marked Date Original Photographs Yes No # of photos Date Rec'd Describe Photos Interview Agreement and tape disposal form: Given to interviewee on Received Yes No Date Signed Restrictions- If yes, see remarks below. Yes No Transcription: First typing completed by Pages Date (name) (G; (name) Sent to interviewee on f E_ Received from interviewee on t x_Q &a <fif (A. (name) Pages Pages Date Pages Date Date Proofread by: 1) Pages Date 2) Pages Date Photos out for reproduction: Where to: Date: Original photos returned to: Date: Indexed by: Date Sent to bindery by Date Received from bindery Date Deposited in archives by: Date Group 2 Moderator: Interviewees: Transcriber Place: A &M College Campus Kids 18 February 1998 D. Maloney (DM) Billie M. Trail (BT) Laetitia Cofer Haines (LH) Betty Jo Hale Hohn (BH) Kym Rucker Conference Center, Room # 102 DM We are interviewing today Mrs. Hohn, Mrs. Trail, and Mrs. Haines, about early life on the A &M campus. We will start with Mrs. Hohn, and we want each of you to tell us how old you were when you lived on the A &M campus, how many years you lived there, what your home was like, what it was made out of, how many rooms it had, and your neighbors. What was it like to grow up there? BH I was born September 15, 1927 at St. Joseph Hospital in Bryan. I lived in the same house from the day I was born until the day I married my husband, Charlie Hohn, who also was a college kid. Charlie died January 4, 1994. I brought a picture of me as a baby with my mother in the front yard. In the background is the skyline of Texas A &M University in 1927. You can see the old main building in this picture. We lived at the F &B Station - -they called it the Experiment Station farm area where my father worked. It was just down the road, called Jones Road, from where the Veterinary school is at present. DM That's on Highway 60 today. Raymond Stotzer Boulevard. BH There were four families who lived there. The Sherwood Family and the Hale Family lived in houses next door to each other across the street from the Experiment Station. Down the road were the Copeland and the Yarnell families. The Horticulture area is where the Yarnell's lived. The Dairy area is where the Copeland's lived and, we all lived on three or four acres of land. At our house, we had a badminton court, an archery range, swings, etc. The Sherwood's had a tennis court. I also had a Shetland pony. We just had the greatest time living out at the Experiment Station. Oral History Project —A &M College Campus Kids —Group 2— February 18, 1998 —Page # 1 BH It was a wood frame house with four bedrooms, two bathrooms a large living room, large dining room, kitchen area and a breakfast room. Well most people lived in those college homes, until 1949. I married in 1948, and then Mother and Dad built a home on Brookside Drive where they lived for thirty years. So we had a wonderful childhood. DM Who looked after this land? You say you had about two or three acres apiece. Who actually maintained the property? BH The Experiment Station farm workers would come now and then to mow the lawn. Mother would hire someone to help in the yard when needed. We had a separate garage and mother's washroom was back of the garage. When I was a tiny little girl, we had one of those big iron wash pots. The maid lived in a house in the backyard and she washed the clothes in this huge wash pot. Of course, that didn't last too long. We had a washer and dryer after awhile. I remember during the war mother had a Victory Garden. She also had a beautiful rose garden and other lovely flowers. I remember petunias, larkspur, bachelor buttons, daisies, and iris. Beautiful flowers. It was very nice out there. We had a good time. We would ride our bicycles everywhere. We went swimming at the college pool in the summer. If we didn't have our bicycles, I don't know what we would have done. I lived on my bicycle riding back and forth, back and forth. We would ride Shetland ponies with the Yarnell family, they had a Shetland pony. We would play Cowboys and Indians and would build tree houses and platforms in the trees. We spent a lot of time just climbing the trees, having a good time. DM Now we'll ask Mrs. Trail, the same questions. BT Well we actually lived in three houses. We moved from house to house. The first one was a three story -house where the old Physics building is and years later I taught at A &M and one of the things I taught was World of Work. About that time, there was a new Physics building. My freshmen use to gripe constantly that nothing ever changed. I would laugh to myself about the many changes at Texas A &M. Next, we moved in back of the Boltons' house which was also across the street from Guion Hall. Lastly, we moved to the corner of Houston and what is now Joe Routt. That was near the side of Guion Hall. That house was the house we were in the longest. I came here at the age of one in 1920 and left when I was nineteen and married one of the yell leaders, Very Aggie oriented, I guess. Believe me there was a very small fraternity of people on campus at a small college. Everyone lived on campus including the branches of the Army and the Administrative personnel, the higher -ups. DM Did they live close to you? Who were your neighbors? Oral History Project —A &M College Campus Kids Group 2 February 18, 1998 —Page # 2 BT Well, we were on a block. Rusty Anderson (Dr. Frank Anderson) and family lived to the side of us and his mother, Helen, had decided to have a home delivery. Now my mother had told me "babies were brought by the doctor in a black bag." So she didn't want me to know where they really came from. When Helen went into labor, my father took me in his car and drove me away so I wouldn't hear or see anything. Every so often he would stop and call my mother to see if Rusty had arrived yet and if it was safe for me to come home. It really took quite a few hours as it was her first bab DM The first home you said was a three storied home. What size was the home and what type of design? BT Well, the one that I lived in most of the time had four bedrooms and a music room. We had a picture window and I don't know why because it was years, decades even, before picture windows came out. But we had a picture window, facing Houston Street and I learned to love storms from watching them through that window. My dad, who loved storms, used to take me by the hand, when storms came. My nickname was Snooks and he would say, "Look at that, Snooks, isn't that beautiful ?" I never developed any sort of fear of storms because of that. I adored my father and he thought storms were beautiful. I now put on a raincoat with a hood, go out and sit on the steps when storms come in. During the hurricane Carla (1961), we drove towards Houston while almost all cars were coming out. DM Since you were on the campus itself, you must have had less land, than for instance that Mrs. Hohn, had. Did you have gardens? BT My mother use to rent two or three acres from a local farmer for our gardens. DM But the land on campus where you lived was being maintained by the university as well? BT Yes, we had a servant's house in back and we had two garages because we had two cars and my dad brought the second car on campus. Old, Dr. Bizzell had one and my father had one. Now I can't park on campus, even with a Retirement Parking Permit. The whole place is a fender bender waiting to happen. DM Ok, let's go to Mrs. Haines then and get her recollection about campus life. LH Well like the others said, it was wonderful! We lived in an old house. I was actually born at home on the campus. We lived in an apartment house that had been a bachelor's apartment that they converted into four units, and my parents had one of these apartments until I was very young maybe six weeks old. We moved on the same street and this location was across from Walton Hall, down from the boardroom and the Post Office, and I think it's a parking lot now. It had a sun porch and a breakfast room added one time, then a third bedroom, but we just had one bath. The house was framed and it had a fairly big backyard. The front yard wasn't as big as the backyard which went pretty far back with the servant's quarters. It was fenced in with chickens in the little garden, as we called it. We could even build bonfires in the backyard. Oral History Project — &M College Campus Kids —Group 2— February 18, 1998 —Page # 3 You can see a little bit of what type of house it was. (A picture is shown) and this is the Walton Hall and my sister was a friend of Billie Mae's Sara, and my older brother was a friend of Sunny Campbell. It was a wonderful time. We would climb trees and have chinaberry fights. We had bicycles and we also roller - skated a good bit. I remember roller- skating in the old main building the "Rotunda" that's marked off now (the Academic building). You can't even walk on it. You know those big columns? We would swing through and all around those columns. The sidewalks that go behind the Engineering building down and around Sully's statue (the statue of Lawrence Sullivan Ross) were great for roller- skating and bicycle riding. We also biked everywhere all across the drill field and campus. At Kyle Field, we would go over the ramps. It wasn't a great big stadium compared to now but, the ramps were pretty steep and you could ride the bicycles down those ramps and that was really exciting. We also had a wash pot which had flowers in it at home. There were movies at Guion Hall and I think the movies were ten cents and very noisy. Oh, I can remember that. I played a lot of hide and seek and the campus was a real family. When anybody got in trouble, well everybody would just come to help. I remember when the Campbell's house burned and everybody just went over there. People brought out some of the furniture and took it home get it refinished to give back to the Campbell's. I remember that Mrs. Campbell had given me a green children's desk, so I returned it to her so they could have some keepsakes. DM What does that mean "Airout "? Guion Hall — Chapel, Theater, Auditorium Texas A &M Archives* My father taught English for thirty some odd years and then was the first Archivist at A &M. You asked what we did, how we were involved with the A &M students well it wonderful to watch them march in to meals and we went to all the parades. Where I lived my father would always be retrieving a pet that they would take into a room, but we would find it and bring it back. Another thing that I remember which they don't talk much about anymore is the Airouts, when the freshmen would get aired out. Where we lived, we had a little screened porch and it was always unlocked in case the freshmen needed to slip in there. It would be friends or some of my father's students who would slip in there. LH They just say airout freshmen and they had to leave their rooms. But really, it was hazing so I guess that's why you'll scratch of this out. The flags would be flying and then they would say air out and, that means to run. They would hide in the bushes and they would have to stay gone until dawn. DM Let's go back to Mrs. Hohn for a moment. I wanted to ask if you have any recollection how the houses were assigned and was there an area that had more status or money BH At the F &B Station there were four areas: Swine, Dairy, Poultry and Horticulture. The Oral History Project — &M College Campus Kids —Group 2— February 18, 1998 —Page # 4 men who were chairmen of a section were assigned to a house. Behind the Dairy Farm and the Poultry, there was another street. There were houses for the workers who worked at the Experiment Station. DM I see. Do you have any idea what the rent was back then, for these houses? BT I think four bedrooms and two baths and a music room and living room, and dining room and kitchen, servant quarters and two garages; we paid $26.00 for it. LH Ours were less than that because we only had one bath and three bedrooms. I think we paid $17.00 and that the price went up one dollar each time you got another room. BH I never heard daddy discuss the rent. It may have been in the twenty -five dollar range. DM I wanted to ask you since you were on that side there some mention that there was a zoo located on the Westside of the railroad tracks. Do you recall anything about that? BT, LH Yes, there was! BT Oh, it was really small with lots and lots of concrete. LH And where was it? BH Was it near Dairy? By the railroad tracks? BT They also had a museum with old Dr. Francis, Martin Francis, and the Curator and they had two headed calves there. LH I think it was across the railroad tracks but I'm not sure. BH Is that where we use to have the horse shows? BT I think we had the horse shows where the field artillery and the Cavalry stabled the horses. BH That's where we had riding lessons. But the horse shows were on campus in some sort of arena that they had. You ought to tell about horse riding cause she is quite a good little horse rider. BH You asked what the men did at the Experiment Station Farm and they were also part of the animal science department. That's where all the research was done and my daddy was the first to demonstrate that congenital birth defects, which were previously thought to be only hereditary, could also be the result of maternal nutritional deficiency. That was a first in medical science. The Chemistry lab there that he started eventually became the Biochemistry department on campus here. Oral History Project —A &M College Campus Kids —Group 2 — February 18, 1998 — Page # 5 DM In 1939, everyone was told that on or before September 1, 1941, everyone had to live off of campus. Were you around then? Were you still here? What was your family's reaction to the eviction notice? BH It was 1949 when mother and daddy moved from the F &B Station. I think they were ready for this. They had built a beautiful new home. It was exciting for my parents. It had been a marvelous experience living there. DM And Mrs. Trail, when your mom and dad got the eviction notice that you had to leave, how did they take that? BT We lived in a stucco house that was built on hard tile; we probably lived in the coolest house on campus. It wasn't very cool but the coolest house on campus. It could not be moved so it was cleared out. Its location is about where the gift shop is in the MSC, on the corner. I don't recall that it upset a lot of people; many of them bought their houses and moved them. And my mother bought a house and moved in onto Montclair it's still there, a big scrawling house, with a wrap- around porch. She bought a second, smaller one and, put it over on Grove. You could move most of them without cutting them. Some of them were too big and had to be cut into two and moved in sections, but many people bought their houses and moved them off. LH I really want to go back and say one thing how house were assigned. Our house was assigned because the president's wife, Mrs. Bizzel, came to see my mother when I was just first born and we were living in a one - bedroom house apartment. She went home and told her husband, that we should have a house, there was a house that was vacant down there, and to move the Cofers because they had three little children and they needed a bigger house. BT Minnie Copeland (LH's mother), was really a character and her own light, complete total character and when Mrs. Bizzel, was coming to visit she took down the baby crib and emptied out a drawer, from a chest of drawers, and put the baby in that drawer. And that's why Mrs. Bizzel, was so impressed. LH I don't remember who but I do remember some bitterness about professors saying that they got kicked off the campus. But my father was not one at all and we got a lovely home and he previously bought some property right across from the campus down around the Episcopal Church on Pershing Drive I guess. It was a new high school there down there and Karen Mitchell owned this property right here. So it was close to school and we had a pretty new home, we thought it was wonderful to get that house right across from the campus and, so we didn't think it was that bad. DM So there wasn't that much resentment? LH It really wasn't fair for some professors to have such good care on campus and being able to walk to work when the new people couldn't have it. The campus had just outgrown that way of life. Oral History Project —A &M College Campus Kids —Group 2— February 18, 1998 —Page # 6 DM I would like to know about the social life on campus like the bridge club, card parties, dances and socials. Oral History Project —A &M College Campus Kids Group 2— February 18, 1998 —Page # 7 BH I can remember my mother and daddy would dress in formal clothes to go to dinner and to play bridge. I remember one evening they were getting dressed to go to the Luther Jones home. Mother wore a beautiful black formal and my father wore his tuxedo. DM And what did you children do while mom and dad were at these parties? Were you allowed to attend? BH No, we would stay at home with the maid. We made our own fun, you know. We played a lot of games. We played card games and, board games and listened to the radio. I remember I used to get my homework done before the 8:00 train would come by. DM What about the social life for the adults? Did they actually dress in formals? BH We're talking lovely. Tuxedos, no nice suits, for dinner. BT They were very formal dinners. BH And there were a number of them. LH They wore long white gloves aid dinner hats. BT Dinner hats and gloves and long dresses. DM This was before air conditioning. BT Yes, my mother was a fabulous cook, when she set her mind to it, very rarely. BT Right! I've always had sympathy for guests because my mother had a pressure cooker and when that 12:00 whistle blew, my mother threw all ingredients in this pressure cooker, including the meat and vegetables, and all tasted of each other and it was formal dinner. That was our organized meal. I had two older sisters. My father always wore his coat and always wore a white shirt, black knit tie and gold collar buttons. He had worked with Latinos on the railroad. My father was an engineer and he was head of buildings and grounds and he had an acquired a taste for all pepper sauces. So we had five or six of them always lined in front of his plate and, he would take them all five deliberately gross up this terrible food and then he'll cut it and eat it. He would eat it and get up and say, my mother name was Eva, "thank you Eva, it was a fine meal ". I use to think it could have been boiled oak leaves. He would say it was a fine meal. He couldn't taste anything but, the pepper sauce. But when she cooked, she was fabulous. LH We had wonderful parties, with the nuts in tiny little baskets, and mints had maroon nets and ribbons around them, and avocados were called "alligator pears ". They look like alligator pears. Everything was very formal. BF I found a newspaper clipping about a reception giving at the Gilchrist home Oral History Project —A &M College Campus Kids —Group 2— February 18, 1998 — Page # 8 DM So you were young ladies helping? LH Yes. Mrs. Walton would give each of us a gift. Like an evening purse or compact. I remember my parents dressing up and going out to dinner parties, receptions and teas, and bridge partie BT And bridge, afternoon bridge clubs, as well as these that were just for the women. DM So, Mrs. Hohn, you are saying we had another social life beyond the couples, the women got together and played bridge. BH My mother belonged to a bridge club which met in the homes. She also belonged to the Garden Club and PTO. BT There was a club called the "A &M Mothers Club ". My mother was president several times. Almost everyone had help, so the women had a lot of free time. DM What about the men? Did the men have separate meeting groups? I know they had formal dinners, but were there any separate social occasions? BH My dad and his friends met at Hershel Burgess' place. They called it the Agricultural Club. BT My father was a Mason and he went to meetings that were very secret. Dad was also in the Lion's Club. DM The women had the Garden Clubs and then they had the A &M Wives Club or the Faculty Wives Club. LH The bridge clubs were for the women. And my father was a Kiwanis. One of the first Kiwanis. That was just a little bit later. I remember I probably was in high school when they had the Kiwanis Club. BH Our fathers belonged to various service organizations like the Lions' Club, Rotary or Kiwanis. My dad was a member of the Lions Club. DM I wanted to ask you to tell us about "The Shirley" the two story building that was the first hotel on campus, that later became the "Aggieland Inn "? Do you know anything about the history of "The Shirley"? BT Well, it was across from the side of Sbisa. Right, it was like a hotel and was called the Aggieland Inn. You could get meals there. LH My father lived there as a bachelor, It was called "The Shirley" but, I don't know much about it or how long he lived there. Oral History Project —A &M College Campus Kids — Group 2— February 18, 1998 —Page # 9 BT I just remember it as the Aggieland Inn where people could come, and they could rent a room as you would at a hotel, and they could eat downstairs. Then it was torn down. I think a hospital was built there. LH When it was the Aggieland Inn after the Shirley, they made delicious hot rolls and, when you go by there before dinner, they'll let the kids have some rolls. BH I remember that I had one of my wedding parties on the porch at the Aggieland Inn. Mrs. Sherwood, our next -door neighbor had a breakfast for me. It was a nice place to entertain. It also was a place for girls from out of town to stay when coming to one of the Aggie Balls. It was just right across the street from Sbisa, so it was convenient. DM And be protected from all those Aggie's. Well I'm going to ask now if any of you know about the summer picnics at the Fish Tank, which was a swimming hole fed by springs located three miles from campus, near the Easterwood Airport today. Did any of you ladies hear about the Fish Tank? BT I swam there many, many times. In my family my older sister was the "only child "; it was very good for me because I didn't get a lot of supervision. This worried some of the other wives. But I tell you for me, it was great! Preston Bolton and I were bosom friends. I was a year older than he, and we went everywhere together from the time we were little children, five and four and up. When we got a little older, we would go down to the Fish Tank. The water really was nice and cold; we would swim in our underwear and our families never found out about it. We also rode freight trains into Bryan. We would climb on top of a car and then jump to other cars. DM You were a naughty person, Mrs. Trail. This is on record, folks. BT It's true and we did it for several years. One day my mother was driving Mrs. Bolton, who was crippled so she couldn't drive and, they went by the train station, just as the freight train was pulling out. Preston and, I were on top of the train. We were jumping from car to car. We would go into Bryan and we'd wait and catch one back. The trains were really pretty busy those days. And later Mrs. Bolton, said that was the most horrible time that she had ever spent that riding into Bryan and hoping we would still be alive, which of course we were, and then we were firmly forbidden to ride on the tops of freight trains. Really, it was a lot of fun. DM Did that stop you from doing it? Did you stop it then? BT Oh yes, I think I did. DM So you were obedient? Oral History Project —A &M College Campus Kids — Group 2— February 18, 1998 —Page # 10 BT Once it was pointed out so well, I think we would have been in serious trouble. Being out there on top of a freight train where everybody could see us and maybe tell my father. BH We used to have family picnics out at the Fish Tank. Often on a Sunday each family would bring a covered dish. DM Did anyone go fishing out there and catch anything? BT It was called the Fish Tank because the "fish" (A &M freshman cadets) once a year were allowed to rule supreme. They hazed the sophomores, drank a lot of beer and had a grand time out there. They had a very wild party DM Out there once a year? BT One day when there were supreme. LH Oh, it was really one wild party. I don't think anyone was ever killed, but I think that was a minor miracle. DM I'm going to go now and ask about the elementary school on the A &M Campus. About how many students were in your class. What type of classes you took. What extra activities there might have been? Just things that come to mind. I'm going to start with Mrs. Haines, this time and give the rest of you a little more time. LH As I remember it was just one grade we were all together through the 7th grade in a stucco building located across from where the military dorms are today. I guess just north of the dorms. I can't really remember it, there must have been around thirty in the class. We didn't seem to be crowded and had one teacher. We had recess in the morning and in the afternoon, and an hour for lunch. We use to walk home for lunch. There was no cafeteria or people bringing lunches or anything. You went home for lunch. It was fun, fun on the school ground, particularly the Giant Stride. I guess you don't even know what that is. It was a big iron pole, dangerous with the chains coming out, and kids got on it and went round and round. Kids would run in front of you or stop and run in back of you, bump into you and knock you off. And there were the metal bars where we played King of the Mountain. DM Waiting for a lawsuit! Do you remember any classes you took? LH We learned Phonics, and Mrs. Sloop taught reading. Just reading and writing. I had writing where you had to go up and down on the line arithmetic. DM You said you had grades 1 -7 in there, about thirty students and one teacher. LH No, one teacher for each grade. The building was two stories, and the fire escape was really a giant slide, but we were forbidden to play on in. Oral History Project —A &M College Campus Kids —Group 2— February 18, 1998 —Page # 11 DM I bet Mrs. Trail, probably played on that. Mrs. Trail, tell us of your recollections. BT See I'm older than Little Dee (Laetitia's nickname) by several years. So when we were in Consolidated, country children rode school buses that went out into the country area. That's why it was called Consolidated, because they brought in the farm children to the A &M Campus. And it was really like two groups of children because the farm children did bring their lunches, but we went home. I lived only a block from the school. I was very vain, and I still am. I walked home at noon, had lunch, and changed my entire outfit before going back the second half. It was a very small class - -I think there were sixteen of us. We had some teachers who were faculty wives who taught for pin money. Then we had some career teachers like Mrs. Sloops and Missy Pipkin. The classes were pretty much like Mrs. Haines explained. I remember high school. We had math, I never was really good at math, English and history. I remember we had a history professor who must have worn a size thirteen or fourteen shoe. He was big and heavyset; and he would get up from his desk that was right next to our rows. I was in front now center, and frequently he would step into the waste paper basket. He was very big, we would always crack up. We had another teacher who never understood why we were laughing. His name was a single man named Gross, and he would put up something on the board then say "Now, class, watch the board as I run through it. We had drama and we had Spelling Bees. I remember sitting in the shade studying little white pamphlets with columns and columns of words. We went, if we won, to county then to State. LH Interscholastic League. BT What else did we do? We did P.E. We went out and did all of the exercises. We had outdoor P.E. because we had no gym. DM And the Giant Slide? LH That was in grade school DM Mr. Hohn, what are your recollections. BH I was just five years old when I started at A &M Consolidated School because my birthday was September 15, my mother and dad had to pay tuition for me because I was not six before the 1 of September. Caroline Adriance and Ouise Marsh also started early. I brought some report cards so I can tell you what we studied. Mrs. Cornellious Sloop was an outstanding 1st grade teacher. She wrote the book "Keys to Phonics" published by the Economy Publishing Company. When I started Oral History Project —A &M College Campus Kids —Group 2— February 18, 1998 —Page # 12 teaching school in 1968, I used Mrs. Sloop's Economy Reading Series to teach my children. Educators would come to College Station to learn how to teach Mrs. Sloop's methods. It was an advantage in those days to have reading from Mrs. Sloop. Other courses that we studied were Arithmetic, English, Geography, (Showing of a 5th grade report card) History, Hygiene, Reading, and Spelling. DM And we might want to make a note here that there are all A's here. And the ink is fairly recent. BH E. M. Sims was our 2nd grade teacher. She was a fantastic teacher. We published a newspaper in this classroom. And this is was the year I started taking piano lessons. The school would allow one to walk down the sidewalk to Mrs. Bolton's house on the corner. Mrs. Conway would come from Bryan to teach music lessons. So I think I think it's important to realize that our community really helped us to grow. Mrs. Bolton opened her house to the music teacher. The school allowed us to leave school to have music. We were being enriched in many ways as we went to this little school. But about the Giant Slide, it was fun to be in the third grade because the third graders lined up on the edge of the building. When dismissed for recess third graders could be first on the Giant Side. It was the most popular thing on campus. LH That's about all we had. Someone would fall off every now and then and that person would keep going around until he hit somebody in the head. I don't ever remember a teacher being on duty during recess. BH We were all good kids. We played, did a lot of jump roping on the sidewalks and jacks and hopscotch. We'd draw our hopscotch and we'd bring our jacks and the little ball from home. We had all kind of little tricks we'd do, playing jacks. One was Apples on the Shelf. It was fun in those days. We would play Red Rover, red rover, let somebody come over. We'd make up our own games on the playground. DM Any extra activities like the Drama Club and Speech mentioned by Mrs. Trail? BH We did participate in those Interscholastic Leagues. I remember when I was in the 3rd grade I was taking a class to study Picture Memory. I was still very small and those ceilings were so tall. I was sort of scared to walk down that long middle hall to the room at the end. There we learned to recognize the paintings of the old masters-- Rembrandt, Monet, Fleming, etc. DM For Picture Memory you would look at the artwork? BH They would show us a picture and we would have to tell who painted the picture. DM I would like to talk now movies and I'm going to start with Mrs. Trail. I suspect that she went to a lot of movies. BT I did! Oral History Project —A &M College Campus Kids — Group 2— February 18, 1998 —Page # 13 DM What did it cost? What were the refreshments? I-low people comported themselves. Was there a smoking section? This kind of thing. Tell us about your recollection about the movies in College Station in Bryan and on campus. BT We had a place across from the YMCA called the Assembly Hall and the movies were an absolute firetrap but we started going to the movies when I was a baby, because at that time segregation was tight on campus. The only way the maids could go to the movies was if they had a white child with them, and, so I went. We were the little ones. I'm talking eight months, ten months old. We went to lots of movies. DM Because the maids would take you? BT Yes, because the maids wanted to go, and, of course, we loved it. They were silent films. I think I was seven when the first spoken film came out. I think it was "Mammy ". I can't remember. DM The first one on campus might have been that. The first one was Al Jolson. <Al Jolson starred in this 1930 film release.> So what was it like then in the theater on campus? BT Well, it was used mainly for lectures. It was not primarily a movie thing. It was used to assemble the students. It was like a great big building with seats at a slant and bolted to the floor. DM Wooden seats. BT Lots and lots of seats for that time. I didn't know it was a great big room and that's what they used it for. In between lecture times they had movies. Later, the movies moved out of the Assembly Hall we went to Guion Hall, which was a nicer brick building with a balcony upstairs. DM What was it like there with your drinks and smoking? BT No drinks, no smoking. BT In fact, smoking was not done at all. My older sister smoked, and my mother thought it was so terrible. She thought that she could get Laurine, to stop if she smoked and Laurine saw how terrible it looked. So they both got addicted. But my mother hid her smoking for a long time and she would not smoke in public. BH You didn't (smoke in public). BT They had little cardboard boxes of cigarettes that they called cubebs. They were very similar to Virginia Slims. A puff of cotton had been put in the cardboard, and they were slender, smaller than your little finger. Women Oral History Project —A &M College Campus Ki did not smoke, but the men did. DM And what did movies cost? BT I think the ones at the Assembly Hall were free. I think the earlier ones were free. Photo from Wikipedia BH Yes, I can remember when I think I must have been in the first grade the whole school walked over to the Assembly Hall to watch the Walt Disney's the Three Little Pigs. We also saw a magic show there once. Can you remember that Laetita? DM So they had live theaters as well as movies in the Assembly Hall across from you? BT At Guion Hall someone would bring in artists. Madam Schuman- Height came, I remember and she was German American, fabulous voice. She was a soprano. LH Families and students went to that together. It wasn't just the school kids. BT My father was such a fan; my father was German and Madam Shuman- Height was originally German. My father bought long stem pink roses. I was about seven years old and I had a pink organdy ruffled dress. At the end of the concert, I went up with an armful of roses and gave them to this fabulous singer. She was probably in her early 50's, and she had a huge silk handkerchief -big, just big. She took that silk handkerchief, wrapped it around one of the roses, and handed it back to me. I was absolutely thrilled. I kept that handkerchief for many, many years. I wished I had it now, but I lost it somewhere. We did have artists, and we had guest ministers and preachers. DM And the cost for going to the entertainment, was there a fee? BT No, that was part of the campus. Billy Sunday came and talked. DM We've touched roller skating and jacks, but we haven't heard from Mrs. Hohn, about her horseback riding experience. What about swimming at the Downs Natatorium? We heard something about water fights between the Southside kids and the north side kids on campus. Was there a war going on? BH Before Downs Natatorium was built, we swam at the Y down in the basement. That was my first memory of the YMCA. Every summer I would ride my bicycle over to the Downs Natatorium and we'd stay in that water all afternoon. It was located on campus by Kyle Field. «Both Downs Natatorium and the swimming pool which replaced it have been removed.» Art Adamson was the swimming coach and he was so kind. He would teach all of us. LH And Spike White. Oral History Project —A &M College Campus Kids —Group 2— February 18, 1998 —Page # 15 BH And Spike White. We would practice. We were so determined to win we'd practice every day. We'd swim lap after lap. We were quite efficient in free style, backstroke, and breaststroke. BH That was a lot of fun for us to be at the swimming pool every summer. I remember I was so sad the last day of summer when the pool would close. DM Well, let me ask you this. When they closed the outside one, did you go to the YMCA swimming pool? Did you swim there? LH Down's Natorium was an indoor pool. It was not outside. LH -BH Very loud and noisy. BT It was beautiful. Very beautiful inside. All tile. DM What about the YMCA. Do you ladies have any recollections about the YMCA? Did it offer anything for you? I'll start with Mrs. Haines. LH Oh yea. The swimming pool was there. BT The Christmas party was there. The real, real, real St. Claus came to the Christmas party to every Christmas party there, every Christmas Eve. We got a little package of hard candies, rock candies. It was very rare in those days. I use to steal from my mother's purse every other day. Preston, stole in between. DM I tell you, she has some kind of list going here. Mrs. frail, this is all on record. BT It's true. We would take a dime a day. Preston and I would walk to the YMCA. The Y had a soda fountain on one side and I would almost always buy an Eskimo Pie. It was normally white inside, but if it was pink when you bit into that chocolate, you got a free one. Then the next day Preston, would steal a dime from his mother's purse. We did this only in the summer, you know it was one of the nice things to do. Walk, ride the train, swim, skate, and eat Eskimo Pies. DM So you were a seasonal thief. Mrs. Hohn, do you want to add something to that? BH I remember the Christmas party at the Y. I was just a tiny little girl and I remember they gave a gift to each of us. After one of the Christmas parties, I said "You know mother that Santa Claus sounds just like my daddy." She didn't say anything but 1 later found out that it was my daddy. DM After the students would leave during the summer. What was life like for you there on Oral History Project —A &M College Campus Kids —Group 2— February 18, 1998 —Page # 16 campus? LH Well we swam, we played, we'd go over kids' houses, we'd play, and when we got bored, we had summer school. When we were in high school they had wonderful dances. BT Oh, at the Grove LH Yes. BT We were teenagers. Social life didn't come down LH There were boys in summer school. DM So they had summer school going so the campus really didn't shut down? LH No, it didn't. But the dances at the Grove were a lot of fun. DM Mrs. Haines, are there any more confessions you want to make? BT I was bad, but I don't usually admit it. DM She's putting this all on Preston. BT No, no, I'm not. I was the ringleader. Preston was a year younger than I, but we use to skate a lot and we would go in to the old Administration Building, the building with the big dome on it, and skate in there on the dark oiled wooden floors. LH That's where we skated. BT There was a hall you could go all the way through or you could get in the rotunda and go around and around. The campus police didn't like us to do that. They would chase us but they were fat, red - faced, oldish men. They could never catch us. We were on skates, and they were running. We were young and we would jump down the steps. We'd get at the end of the steps going down, jump those steps and hit the sidewalk and I don't think we were ever caught. It was a wonderful skating ring. I'm sure it wasn't good for the classes; it must have been very noisy trying to teach over our skate sounds. DM You had such a wild childhood Mrs. Trail; we want to know what it was like to see the doctor in the hospital. You must have been there the way you carried on. BT No, I did not get hurt a lot. Old Dr. Marsh, our Doctor Marsh's father, was head of the hospital, and he was allowed to treat and bill faculty, staff, and Army people. I took over my own medical care when I was about six. And I would hear of some disease going around and I would tell Preston, "we better go get our shots" and we would go over to the campus hospital. Dr. Marsh would give us little kids whatever shots we asked for and my mother never knew what Oral History Project —A &M College Campus Kids —Group 2— February 18, 1998 —Page # 17 we had gotten inoculated for until the bill came in. And she would just laugh, "Well I guess you and Preston, just went over and got your shots." He never questioned our doing that. We were quite young when we started going there. Preston was five and I was six. Church picnics can be dangerous things. When I was a high school student, I went out in a boat with a couple of other kids and we wouldn't bring in the boat in. Somebody threw a rock, and cut me open, right here above my eye. I went to old Dr. Marsh, and he looked at me, blood coming down, and he said "Oh people should drive more carefully; these cars are very dangerous," and I said "No, I've been hit by a Baptist. I thought he got it, he just sewed me up, and bandaged me. As I left, he said "Now you remember, those cars are really dangerous." DM: Mrs. Hohn, did you have anything that you wanted to add? RH: Louise Marsh, Dr and Mrs. Marsh's only daughter, and I went from first grade through college together. We were roommates in college. I spent a lot of time at the Marsh house. Dr. & Mrs. Marsh were lovely people. They owned some land just east of the college where the racetrack is now. They kept a horse or two out there and Dr. Marsh would allow Louise and me to ride around the area. DM And Mrs. Haines? LH: Dr. Marsh fixed my broken arm. I jumped or fell out of a tree and my sister just took me over to their house and he fixed it. Mom Cleghorn was the head nurse over there, and she pulled all of my baby teeth. When one would get loose, I would just run over there and she pulled it. I don't remember getting a tooth pulled at home. I wanted Mom Cleghorn to do it. They never asked any questions, they knew us all. BH Mom Cleghorn even took care of my daddy when he had the flu at A &M in 1918, during that bad flu epidemic. DM Now we are going to go to the Sunbeam Special that Mrs. Hohl talked about earlier, and the 8:00, 12:00, 1:00, 5:00 whistles. We already know about the pressure cooker at noon, and that where cigarettes butts at Mrs. Trail's. That's why mom's cooking was so bad. Mrs. Hahn is going to tell us. BH We all lived by that whistle. It blew at 8:00 in the morning when everyone went to work, and at 12:00 to announce lunch, at 1:00 time to go back to work, and then at 5:00. I was always glad to hear the 5:00 whistle to me that meant the end of the day and my dad would soon be home and mother would have supper ready. LH When we had a fire, that whistle was the signal the fire whistle, and you could tell by how many times it blew just where the fire was. BM You certainly knew you had a fire! Oral History Project —A &M College Campus Kids —Group 2— February 18, 1998 —Page # 18 LH It was the way it was blown to signal where the fire was. BH There were some signals such as three blasts followed by two blasts. My father was Honorary Fire Chief because he was head of building and grounds and the whistle was in his power plant. I remember he would go immediately to the phone to get the specifics and then he would go in his car. He would supervise all the fires LH I loved that whistle. BT Fire trucks came. Perception is important because I told this to other people who perceived that whistle as being a male whistle, and forcing us to be regimented. We didn't see it that way at all. It was a convenience if we didn't have a watch because pretty soon we knew what time it was. BH It was sort of comforting to me. Our lives were structured in a way by that whistle. LH It was a pleasant sound, it was a pleasant whistle; and you could hear it a long ways. DM What about the Sunbeam Special? It must have been a fast train that ran. Do you remember that Mrs. Haines? BH Oh, yes, my grandmother lived in Dallas, and it was always exciting to ride on that Sunbeam. Of course, it went right close to where I lived, at the F &B Station. BH The whistles were at 8:00, 12:00, 1:00, 5:00 and then the train would come through about 8:00 at night and blow its whistle. That's when I wanted my homework done. So I must have lived by the sound of the whistle BT I think people got on it to shop in Houston. You would be in Houston in no time; it is only a hundred miles. It didn't stop anywhere else. It stopped in Houston, College Station, and Dallas; that was it. At one time you could stop in Bryan, when we were in high school. You could get on it to ride to Bryan and go to the movies, and come back. You could go to Dallas and shop. It was wonderful DM Now we want to get to the hard part of your childhood ladies, that's called chores. Now when Mrs. Trail, wasn't busy partying, and getting Preston, into trouble, did you actually do any chores? Any time to do chores? BT Marriage was a fantastic shock! Chores, everywhere. BH I had chores. I think mother wanted to keep us busy. So she put a little chart up on the kitchen wall listing things we could do. We really didn't have to do them, but we wanted to do them. One of my chores was to walk up to the poultry area, and buy a dozen eggs for her. I Oral History Project —A &M College Campus Kids Group 2— February 18, 1998 —Page # 19 loved to look at the little baby chickens. On the way home there was a beautiful little meadow that had Texas Wildflowers, so I would stop and pick Blue Bonnets, and Indian Paintbrushes. I remember the little wine cups that use to make your nose turn yellow. I always used to bring mother a little bouquet of wildflowers for the table. Another chore was to swat flies. DM Swat flies? LH I got a penny a fly. DM My dad would pay me a penny a fly. BT I wasn't altogether honest about that. There were only a few flies in the house. I would go out around the garbage cans, and swat the flies and bring the dead bodies in, and my dad would count them. I would get a penny a fly, and then I wouldn't have to steal from them for my treats. BH I would clean up the kitchen after supper sometimes, if we needed that done. It was a special chore. Mother liked for me to clean the kitchen, cause she said I cleaned it real well. She didn't want Billy Bob to do it. DM I want to touch on something you just mentioned about how you went shopping for eggs. Of course, we didn't have Super Wal- Mart's back then, how did you shop for your groceries? Your meats and your vegetables LH On the phone from Luke' Grocery. And if your mom needed some extra money, she sent you over there to bring home $5.00 and to just put it on the grocery bill. BT Luke's first started out right on the campus. It was across from my father's office. It was called a concession, then later it moved to the Northgate. LH But before that it was behind our house, over there by Luke's and Charlie's. BH But before that it was on campus. DM You just called up and ordered your food? BT My older sister, of course, "the only child," was also pretty much of a free spirit. She was seventeen and I was seven; she taught me how to drive, without my mother and father knowing it. When I was eight, my mother, who did a lot of charity work, had the Episcopal cadets help her pack grocery boxes (these were depression days), and she made the remark that she was running short of cardboard boxes, and when she asked if anyone had seen me, one of the Aggies said, "She got in the car and drove off'. I guess Mother was as frightening as Mrs. Bolton. I had gone to the grocery store, gotten boxes, and brought them back home. There wasn't much traffic. You have to understand we had gravel roads. We drove an Oldsmobile. We always drove a blue Oldsmobile. Oral History Project —A &M College Campus Kids —Group 2— February 18, 1998 —Page # 20 Charlie's I mean, Luke's would also delivery the grocery you see, you would just give them the list, and they would delivery. I remember that one time mother thought "my goodness this grocery bill is getting a little bit too high ". It was over $35.00 dollars or something like that; and sure enough, we had ordered too many cokes or soft drinks that time, and the maid had ordered cigarettes. Mother had to put a stop to that kind of thing, you know. You could just order anything you wanted over the phone, and they would deliver. We went away in the summer when my father was a professor. He came here first to teach Civil Engineering, and then he changed jobs. We never locked the house. My father would spread a nine -month salary to twelve months. We would get in the car and we would travel. We'd sleep in parks, and out in the woods, and about twice a week we'd stop at a hotel so everybody could get a bath and do the laundry. It was really safe. Oh, it wasn't always safe, I could have fallen off a building, you know that sort of thing. It was safe where people were concerned. There wasn't any concern about a little girl and little boy going all over the campus and doing whatever. There were no child abusers; if there were, we didn't have any. DM This is interesting because you felt safe, even so whenever they had football games or when like Franklin, President Roosevelt came to visit the campus, a lot of people showing up on campus so how life change or did it change when these people came? LH It didn't change. Except you'd sometimes find dollar bills at the football games, they parked all over, you'd find dollar bills in the ditches because people were maybe intoxicated when they came to their cars. DM You mean there was beer at the football games? LH It wasn't allowed there, but they had a glass and it was sold, although I'm sure it wasn't supposed to be drunk. DM We're not going to mention alcohol or drinking to Mrs. Trail, we're going to skip right over it and go to Mrs. Hohn. BH Dry county. Absolutely DM These were out -of- towners? DM Do you remember anything about President Roosevelt coming to campus, this was '37? BH I have a picture, I don't know if I brought it or not. We were at the railroad station when he came off the back of the train. He was helped into a convertible and was driven over to the football stadium (Kyle Field). DM And people were there to see him? BH Yes, we saw him. The convertible circled the track of the stadium. Oral History Project —A &M College Campus Kids —Group 2 February 18, 1998 —Page # 21 LH And if I can recall the car went around there where the drill field was because the little kids got up in the trees. Besides that, it went around, across from the MSC (Memorial Student Center) now. I don't know what it's called now. Old drill field, maybe the car was on its way back to the train station so the children could see him. DM Do you remember anything about that Mrs. Trail? BT No, I was in college in Iowa State University. DM Did it get you in trouble out of state, just kidding? BT I went to Iowa State because I wanted to get away from home. DM That's interesting because in the 20's and 30's some women were allowed to go to school at A &M. Do you ladies have any recollections about this? BT My sister went to A &M. That was because of the depression days; the Board of Regents passed a temporary rule that faculty daughters could go to A &M, but they got their degree from Texas University. The degree did not come from A &M. They did the work, and transferred the grades, and my sister, I think, went for at least two years to A &M, and then got her degree. Then she went on over to Sam Houston to work on a masters degree. When she got her undergraduate degree, it came from Texas University. It was just a temporary agreement; you couldn't do something so "untraditional" at A &M permanently. LH But you could go and do some of it later in college; girls could go in the summer. DM In the 20's and 30's? BT Every summer. DM I have a question for you. We were talking about groceries, and I was wondering how did you get your mail and telephone. Did everyone have a telephone? Mrs. Hohn. Bit Yes, we had a telephone. I even remember when an operator would dial your number. I remember the old post office, close to the railroad station. I remember our box office number was 1604. It was just a tiny little post office. We would go over each day to get our mail. Later a post office was built at Northgate. LH We got ours at the faculty exchange, which was in that building, that was gated. The Academic building. I remember it was 218 faculty exchange, and you had the numbers turned around. DM And Mrs. Trail, was it the same for your family? Oral History Project —A &M College Campus Kids —Group 2 -- February 18, 1998 —Page # 22 BT No, mine came to my father's office. The whole family's mail was delivered to his office. He brought it home, and frequently, since he tended to be absent minded, he would forget to give it to anybody. I missed lots of parties thinking that I hadn't been invited. About a week or so later my father would say "Snooks, I think I've got some mail in here for you ". He'd pull it out, and sure enough I'd been included, but, of course, I didn't go. DM But, did no one resent your dad? BT Not that I remember. I adored my father. DM Not, like that cooking, Mrs. Haines. BT But mail was put up twice a day. When they moved to the new post office which is where the post office is now, it was fascinating to get mail. BH The students at T.S.C.W. (Texas State College for Women in Denton) would write someone at Texas A &M with their same box number. If your number was 85 at T.S.C.W you would write to Box 85 at A &M. The girls would write box 85 down here thinking they would meet a cute Aggie. Our box office at that new Post Office was box 85. Once my daddy received a letter from this student at T.S.C.W., brought it home, and showed it to my mother. DM Well, I'm just running out of questions. Is there anything else you want to confess to Mrs. Trail, since we are on the record? BT I don't think of this as a confession. We told you about the horseback riding on campus, didn't we? At The Cavalry stable. DM No, you just touched a little bit on it. LH Well, on Saturday morning all of us would take English style riding lessons at the old Cavalry stables. DM And where was the stable? BT Across the railroad tracks. BH Across the railroad tracks from Kyle Field. DM Right where Olsen Field might be now. BH The Army Sergeants would teach us. Three gaited classes: walking, trotting, and galloping. They would do it in a Military manner. We'd be riding around the arena and they would say "Riders to your left, ho." We would turn our horses in the formation. You remember that Laetitia? Oral History Project —A &M College Campus Kids —Group 2— February 18, 1998 —Page # 23 LH Yes, great fun. Horses were pretty strong willed. They were Army horses BT They had iron mouths. DM Mrs. Trails said when they wanted to go home, it was worth your life to get them to go in the opposite direction. BH They had numbers. My favorite horse was number 10 Artillery and I would try to get there early to get that horse, it was a wonderful horse. There was one called Hitler. It had a little mustache BT Charlie Trail was a farmer's son from East Texas. He had had horses and ponies since he was little, so he thought his riding abilities were fantastic. When he was courting me, he was going to show off. I had lots of lessons myself, and I liked a real long- legged horse named Pat. At that time, the government wouldn't move privates in the Army because it cost too much money. We had privates here for 18 -20 years. We went up to the Field Artillery stables, and this private was leaning back in his chair, against the stable walls. Charlie told him what horse he wanted; he rode a horse named Eagle. This private looked at me, and Charlie said "Bring something gentle for the lady" the private, chewing his tobacco, spit and he said "This lady, son ?" I looked a lot older then Charlie. Charlie looked about fourteen or fifteen, and I looked like I was in my 20's although he actually was a year older than I. He said, "She's been riding since you were in diapers. You want Pat, ma'am ?" I said, "Yes please." So he brings out the horses. Charlie, having been put down by this private felt he had to redeem his masculinity in some way. He was going to jump this cyclone fence. We had a black cinder track that ran along the railroad track. He gets Eagle going really fast, and he heads towards this high fence. Eagle balks and Charlie just tumbled over the horse's head onto the cinders. I could hold on to myself long enough to say, "Are you all right ?" He was all right. Well, Eagle went back to the stables the minute he was free. I laughed so hard. I can remember lying across my horse, laughing so hard that my tears rolled down. It's a wonder he ever married me. DM That was his revenge, Mrs. Trail. BT I had to get off Pat and let Charlie ride back in front of the private and get his horse before we could continue. DM Mrs. Hohn. BH I just wanted to say that these riding classes were conducted by the A &M College Military Department. They were the ones who sponsored them. DM Mrs. Haines LH Cavalry officers taught them. Betty Harriet Irving's father was head of this department. BH He was the ringmaster. Oral History Project —A &M College Campus Kids —Group 2— February 18, 1998 — Page # 24 LH He was sort of like in charge of it, he was an officer. Major W.R. Irvin, teacher of the class and ringmaster of the horse show. DM Did they teach you jumping? LH Yes, we did jump some, but we never did jump in the horse shows. BH It was sort of scary because one had to ride up to the north end of the arena and make a quick left, turn into a narrow area to jump the hurdles. LH And they tried teaching us to cross over one time but they quit. Some kids were knocked off their horses. BH I loved riding English Style. It was a wonderful way to spend our Saturday mornings. I still have my silver cups. LH Yes, she was good, she and Virginia Jones. DM Well, I can't think of anything else to ask. I don't know how much trouble I've gotten you into Mrs. Trail. BT Well, you better take that part out about a Baptist hitting me. I might get sued over that, I can't prove he was a Baptist, but it was a Baptist picnic. DM She's been resentful every since. BT I had a scare there for ages, from that "terrible wreck." BH During the war, I dated Charlie Hohn. We married in 1948. But during the war there wasn't much gas for the dates you know. Well Charlie, always had a horse and one of Mr. Hohn, friends had a two wheel buggy, they called it a two wheel gig. Charlie, restored that little buggy, and he would come by here and pick me up in this little buggy, and we'd go riding all around. LH Charlie, had Shetland ponies a lot of the time. He could ride pretty fast, and let other people ride. Charlie always had a horse. DM Did anyone worry about you? LH I don't think they ever worried about us. BT Oh, now well Ella Laetitia France Cofer Haines, Littledee was raised more carefully than that. Your mother kept a sharp eye on everything. Oral History Project —A &M College Campus Kids —Group 2— February 18, 1998 —Page # 25 BT I spent a lot of time at the Cofer's. We were talking about the telephones on campus I can remember our number and a bunch of numbers. Our number was 1476, but the operator knew everybody's number and you could tell her to call Aunt Bob, Mrs. Campbell. LH How can you remember things like that? BT You were younger then. DM So that's how you made phone calls, just picked it up and the operator would come on. BT She would say "Number please ". If it would be busy then you would keep saying and the operator would get so exasperated with you, you know when you kept picking up and asking for that number when the dial and the telephone number came and you didn't have to hear that operator every time you wanted you knew the line kept being busy. LH We had one of those phones you had to hold and put the piece to your ear. DM You mean the box phone, with the speaker and the hand held part? BT Yes, yes. DM They cost about $3,000.00 a piece now. BT One of the things I use to envy was Sara Allen Cofer. On Sunday, very often if the weather was nice, certain faculty mothers and daughters would go to call on each other, and the little girls had hats, and they had white gloves and had their own little calling cards. Now, my mother was never sophisticated enough to do that, and I used to really envy these children in their white gloves and hats with their calling cards. There was always a hallway with a silver tray and you left one calling card for every adult in the household. So if there were a husband and a wife, you would leave two calling cards there. These were very formal visits, and I was always so envious of these children who so participated. LH That was a military tradition in those days. A &M College Campus Kids Memory Lane Oral History Project Sponsored by the Historic Preservation Committee and the Conference Center Advisory Committee of the City of College Station, Texas February 18, 1998 Oral History Project —A &M College Campus Kids —Group 2— February 18, 1998 —Page # 26 *Texas A &M University Historic Images Collection httn: / /cushing.tamu.edu/ collections /images /index.nhn ?c =1 Edited by Louis Hodges Oral History Project —A &M College Campus Kids — Group 2 February 18, 1998 —Page # 27